WDOSP
WDOSP is an ABN-affiliated station serving the Harrisburg, PA area. The station broadcasts on channel 40. It is ABN's sole five-letter callsign station in the United States. It is also the sole ex-Children's Metro Network station currently affiliated with ABN that has kept it's five-letter callsign. WDOSP is available on Dish Network in areas where an ABN affiliate is not available. Logos History WDOSP signed on in 1976 as WERR, owned by amateur radio operator Kayla Herbert's Herbert Broadcasting. Kayla entered a local marketing agreement with Field Communications, resulting in it using Field corporate-branding (a dual Herbert Broadcasting-Field Communciations ident was made for this station). In 1993, Herbert Broadcasting went bankrupt and Field sold the station to struggling media company Firehouse Broadcasting (later sold to Kayla's daughter Samantha and renamed Firehouse Media), who affiliated the station with The Children's Metro Network, and changed the callsign to WDOSP. Firehouse became successful because of WDOSP. In 1999, the Children's Metro Network went off the air and Firehouse Broadcasting quickly picked up an ABN affiliation, which remains on WDOSP to this day. WDOSP is ABN's sole five-letter callsign station in the United States. In August 2016, Firehouse Media announced that it would be selling off WDOSP. Liberty City based Berfield/Willis Broadcast Corporation, one of the "big guns" in broadcasting, purchased WDOSP along with Maranatha owned KPJW for $5.3 million. Analog shutdown WDOSP did not take part in the Analog shutdown for cost reasons. They only built a digital transmitter after an agreement was reached with the FCC. Programming WDOSP broadcasts the full ABN schedule to 200,000 households in Harrisburg alone. Since the start of ULTRA Guts, WDOSP has been consistently one of the network's top-rated stations. While the national Nielsen ratings for October 1st, 2015 were 90.3 with a 65% share of overall households tuning in, the station registered a 120.5 rating (equivalent to 100,230,987 households in the market) and a 96% share. Those numbers were roughly 100% higher than the national average. One of WDOSP's local programs is The Bozo Show, which has been airing since 1976. In 1976, Kayla Herbert, using a bank loan, bought the local rights for the Bozo the Clown format, and created her own Bozo show, featuring Bozo (played since the role's inception by local comedian Zack Leal). Zack was chosen by Larry Harmon to be the Harrisburg Bozo. Other characters include, but are not limited to, Jenna, a anthropomorphic Irish fox (currently played by Zack's daughter Elizabeth) who is Bozo's love interest, and who sings songs for the audience, Professor Wonkytonk (currently played by Jack Valquez) who invents gadgets for Bozo, and "a cast of millions." The Jenna costume was produced by Shafton, Inc. of North Hollywood in California. In 2000, when an ABN affiliation was brought onboard, ABN management cancelled the show, deciding that it did not fit ABN's programming direction. Eventually, in 2002, the show returned after much meddling with ABN executives. Zack Leal jokingly stated in a interview about the show's return "Now Jenna and the others are out of unemployment." Currently, The Bozo Show is used to broadcast programs from ABN Kids and Toonopolis on the WDOSP main feed. In 2014, the original Jenna costume used by her actresses over the years was retired and donated to the Pennsylvania Museum of Music & Broadcast History, to make way for a new Jenna costume, made by local fursuit production company Fluffed Up Productions. Eventually, WDOSP donated the set that they had been using for almost 40 years to the museum in August 2015 to make way for a new set, made by Atomic! Set Construction. Newscast themes * Move Closer to Your World - Mayoham Music (1999-2003) * News Station - Gari Media (2003-2016) * Aeriel - Stephen Arnold Music (2016-present) Category:Channel 40 Category:Harrisburg, PA Category:Pennsylvania Category:ABN Affiliates Category:Champion Digital Broadcasting Category:ABN Domestic Television Corporation Category:Television channels and stations established in 1976 Category:Former Children's Metro Network affiliates Category:Former independent stations Category:Stations that use its call letters Category:Stations that use "Action News" Category:Stations with five letters in their callsigns Category:Berfield/Willis Broadcast Corporation Category:Stations that use "Aerial" by Stephen Arnold Category:Former Independent stations